Rape victim awarded $1.5 million

HAMILTON COURT HOUSE

A Hamilton jury has awarded $1.5 million to a woman raped by a friend in a university dorm room more than seven years ago.

Justin Bisson was convicted in 2008 of sexual assault and sentenced to nine months in jail for the May 2007 attack at Laurentian University in Sudbury.

On Wednesday, as part of a civil suit, he was ordered to pay his victim to cover her lost wages, medical expenses and counselling in the aftermath of the assault.

The figure includes $200,000 for pain and suffering — the maximum award allowed.

In Bisson's statement of defence, he denied the assault claims and argued "any physical contact" was "consensual."

Neither Bisson nor his civil lawyer Graydon Sheppard could be reached for comment.

The case is one that the victim, who cannot be identified, and her civil lawyer, Rob Hooper, say offers important lessons about preventing and dealing with sexual assaults, particularly on university campuses.

The woman says the court process has been a long journey for her. She has constantly relived the night of her attack through multiple appeals and hearings.

"I could never let myself forget," she said, sitting in a sun-filled room at Hooper's downtown Hamilton law office.

Hooper, an experienced litigator, said the case is very unusual — it's not typical for sexual assault victims to sue their attackers and the ones who do don't get $1.5 million judgments.

Since the attack, the woman, a medical resident, says she has dealt with crippling post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and social phobias. She says there are still times she feels lonely and spends the weekend in bed. For her, the case is not about money, she says, but a chance to finally move on.

"I know I'm never going to collect $1.5 million … and I don't really care about that, but having that amount legitimizes (what I went through)," she said.

The woman relayed her account of what happened that night to The Spectator.

She said she and Bisson were friends throughout their four-year undergraduate degrees. At the end of their final year, they got together to watch a movie. Bisson forgot to bring the film and the pair ended up at his nearly-empty residence building.

They drank and talked. She says he tried to kiss her and she told him "not to be stupid." After a trip to the bathroom, she says she was thrown on the ground, clothes pulled off and raped. She tried to get away, but was dragged on the carpet, she says. The incident ended when Bisson became sick and ran to the bathroom to vomit.

Hysterical, missing her shoes, sweater and keys, the woman says she ran to her residence. Her then boyfriend was called, and he called police. She didn't want to report the attack.

"He was my friend, I didn't want him to get into trouble," she said. "I believed he was drunk and that he would never have done it if he wasn't drunk."

The woman eventually called police three days after the attack.

Bisson was arrested and, that same day, the woman found out she got into McMaster University's medical school.

Once there, she said, she had trouble going to classes. Didn't want to eat or get out of bed.

She would barricade her door with a bookshelf at night. She started carrying a knife in her bra.

Eventually she dropped out of school. It would take until 2011 to return. She graduated this year and has started a residency at an out-of-province hospital.

In her work, the woman has already treated three sexual assault victims and says what she went through helps her react to their experiences. She's taken a course to become a sexual assault examiner.

She's busy, has a boyfriend, is functioning, she says.

She is encouraged by the wave of stories about sexual assault and empowering women to come forward in the media lately.

She said her story also points to the perils of being a young undergraduate student.